Whether or not the county moves forward with its first large-scale solar energy project is in the hands of the U.S. Senate.

Howard County wants to build solar panels on a grassy hilltop that once was home to the New Cut Road Landfill, near Worthington Elementary School in Ellicott City.

But if that's to happen, local officials said, Congress needs to renew federal tax breaks for solar and wind energy projects. The federal credit is set to expire at the end of the year, meaning any project that wants to take advantage of it must be finished and generating energy by Dec. 31.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, for the county to finish the project by then, County Executive Kenneth Ulman said.

"I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get this deal done by Dec. 31," Ulman said. If it doesn't happen, Ulman said the county would wait until the deal makes "economic sense."

The New Cut Road Landfill was closed and capped in 1980. The county is limited in what it can do with the land because of the instability of the ground and the methane gas underneath it, said James Irvin, director of the county's Department of Public Works.

SunEdison, an international company specializing in solar energy, would pay the upfront costs to construct the panels and handle their operation, in return getting federal tax credits and an agreement with the county to buy energy produced at the site at a set price, Irvin said. The cost to the county would be comparable to what it pays now for energy, he said.

Without the tax credits, however, the cost of the project would rise about 30 percent, which might make the project not worthwhile to the county, Irvin said.

The energy produced could go to cover about 90 percent of the electrical needs at Worthington Elementary or be put into the Baltimore Regional Cooperative Purchasing Committee, a regional power grid the county belongs to, Irvin said.

County has support

The county has some supporters in its efforts to get the federal tax credit extended. Gov. Martin O'Malley and U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin visited the proposed solar site last week to express their support for the project and urge renewal of the credits.

"It (the project) makes a lot of sense, but it doesn't work if you don't have the credit," Cardin said.

Cardin said a version of the bill has passed in the U.S. House of Representatives several times, but lately has been filibustered in the Senate. He said the legislation, Senate Bill 3335, will likely come up for a vote again in September, and he thinks there might be enough votes for it to pass.

Katherine Gensler, manager of regulatory and legislative affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association, said Howard County is not alone in its concern about the tax credit ending. Governments and private companies around the country are scrambling to complete solar projects before the year's end, she said.

First big solar project

The landfill project would be the county's first large-scale solar energy project.

The county installed 24 solar panels at the East Columbia Branch Library in July as a demonstration project, but the panels produce less than 1 percent of the energy needed to power the facility.

There are no immediate solar projects planned beyond the New Cut Road Landfill project, Ulman said, because there is not a lot of county-owned land suitable for panels. However, solar arrays could be placed on the roofs of government buildings in the future to provide enough energy to heat water systems, for example, Ulman said.

Beyond solar, he said, the county is looking at waste-to-energy generation, such as capturing methane gas emitted from landfills.

In addition to the federal tax credits, Howard County offers its own tax credit to residents who use solar energy.

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